Arlington’s Decker leading Eagles’ surge

Much of the talk surrounding the resurgent Arlington Eagles football team has surrounded quarterback Skylor Elgarico.

But don’t forget about John Decker.

The bruising running back is coming off back-to-back 100-yard-plus games and has spearheaded a rushing attack that has Arlington on a three-game winning streak and in first place in Wesco North 4A.

“John seems to be running with a reckless abandon,” said Arlington head coach Greg Dailer. “He’s breaking a lot of tackles.”

Decker, who didn’t play football last season, rushed for 172 and 105 yards in wins over Snohomish and Mount Vernon, respectively, in the past two weeks and has rushed for 451 yards and five touchdowns on the season.

The emergence of Decker and Elgarico has caused Arlington’s offense to take a 180-degree turn compared to last year’s offense, which was led by quarterback Blake McPherson. Last year Dailer said he called passing plays close to 70-percent of the time, whereas this year it’s the running plays that are being called nearly three-fourths of the time. That sits well with Dailer.